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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 5/19/2006 Posts: 167 Location: N-E Victoria, Australia
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Heres a few pictures I took yesterday on a typically overcast Melbourne day at the 2008 International Trailer Truck and Equipment Show at the Melbourne Showgrounds...enjoy!! KW T604 with 'BAB" Quad Road Train-basically 2 B-Doubles joined up via a dolly Membrey Transport KW104 with Dolly and Extendable Float Western Star R.M. Williams 'Longhorn Express' 2008 KW Models- T908 T408 SAR Noske Transport KW T908 with B-Double grain trailers Greenfreight KW T658 with Kennedy B-Double Logging Trailers Another Membrey's KW K108- Brand spankin' new Cheers Stripeyjack
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 2/28/2008 Posts: 141 Location: Brisbane, QLD
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N - I - C - E.
Any more ?
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 3/17/2006 Posts: 1,169 Location: NJ
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I so love the fact that the Aussies on the other side of the planet have so embraced the American road iron all these years. Even though i still don't get why they make them run such short wheelbase tractors then allow them to tow four or five trailers! Nice pics Stripey. We rally round the family, with a pocket full of shells.....
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
, Moderator
Joined: 1/15/2007 Posts: 4,089
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First thank you for the awesome post. You guys down under run some super sharp rigs. I also love the road trains. And as I have learned here on the forum, the bull guards make my day. They are so tough looking and give teh front of the trucks a real face and attitude. Now, why are there mud flaps on the front of the front tire? This question is driving me nuts-please aussie guys she some light on this for me.....
Bob Bobs CranesCome Over To The Lift Side . . . . . . . We Have Cookies!!!!
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 2/28/2008 Posts: 141 Location: Brisbane, QLD
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JoeE wrote:I so love the fact that the Aussies on the other side of the planet have so embraced the American road iron all these years. Even though i still don't get why they make them run such short wheelbase tractors then allow them to tow four or five trailers! Nice pics Stripey. A few reasons for that, 1 - way back about the late 1940's or early 50's there was a choice of TWO different countries of manufacture, - the pommies, - or the yanks. Now, back then the pommies made heaps of garbage that just did not suit the conditions that we had in Aust back then. The country was still hanging onto the apron stings of the mother country back then. The main drawback with the pommy trucks was they were underpowered heaps of garbage, ( still are, even today ) where-as the yank stuff had some balls about them. Pretty simple reason, eh. Then along came Mack about the late 50's, early 60's, then Kenworth and the rest is history. 2 - The reason for the wheelbase being so short, is that there were draconian laws introduced by the Australian STATE governments, to combat the use of trucks, instead of the use of the railways, which were owned by the state governments. So to beat these laws, the truck manufactures made the wheelbase shorter, which allowed more trailer length - ie, more freight could be shifted. Alas, some of these stupid laws are still in force today. regards radish
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 2/28/2008 Posts: 141 Location: Brisbane, QLD
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OOoopppss, forgot to add that with the wheelbase being SSSssooo short, the mongrels kick like a mule, when you get 'em on a rough dirt road. My kidneys have produced blood in my urine on a few occasions, aahh memories, all bad.
regards radish
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 8/9/2002 Posts: 996 Location: worthington, ohio
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Love the pictures. Have three videos of roadtrains. The conditions under which these trucks operate are unreal. Some of the roads they run on are like the haulroads we have in quarries and mines. Again, enjoyed your pictures. Look forward to anymore you might take.
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 5/19/2006 Posts: 167 Location: N-E Victoria, Australia
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Well heres some more pics...mostly Kenworths ....I just love 'em!! In the first set of pics note the brilliant engineering works on the log truck (done by a regional Victorian engineering company) ....these are real neat to see fold and unfold up to sit on the back of the prime mover and trail along on one axle/tyre set, quite ingenious given the terrain some of these units operate in....Aussie made for Aussie conditions KW T608...love the green colour KW T408 Victoria Police Volvo....Mobile Command Centre and another of Membrey's new KW K108...chrome central!! Cheers Stripeyjack
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 2/28/2008 Posts: 141 Location: Brisbane, QLD
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I'll say it again, N - I - C - E , aahh, any more ?
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
, Moderator
Joined: 1/15/2007 Posts: 4,089
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Still the question lingers, why mud flaps in front of the front tire? Great follow up pictures.
Bob Bobs CranesCome Over To The Lift Side . . . . . . . We Have Cookies!!!!
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 9/11/2006 Posts: 335 Location: Alabama
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I may be wrong about this but my guess would be to keep the mud off the FRONT of the truck...........if you have ever been down a muddy road in a car or truck........the mud splashes FORWARD in front of the tire and inevitablly up on the front of the vehicle......
Just a Hyley edumicated redneck guess...........lmao
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 6/18/2003 Posts: 2,181 Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
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GOOD GRIEF!! Incredibly good looking rigs. That Membreys KW COE is bad to the bone. It's too bad they have to get those beauties dirty. I think I would just park it in the front yard and stare at it. What is the white antenna on the front? And please answer the question about the front mudflaps. Thanks for wonderful pictures. CAW
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 11/30/2007 Posts: 1,083
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Bobm2004 wrote:Still the question lingers, why mud flaps in front of the front tire?
Great follow up pictures. bob, those aussie drivers are so good that they don't turn the trucks around at the end of the run, the reverse all the way back. no, really.
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 2/28/2008 Posts: 141 Location: Brisbane, QLD
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Mud flaps at the front, easy, BLING.
Now, why do you jackasses, have front bumper bars that scrape along the road. Is this another new form or way to smooth out the road, just like a grader does?
The big long white antenna is for a VLF 2 way radio, so base can contact you, even if your way across the other side of Aust and out in the bush. They just call you at a certain time and you got to have the radio tuned to a certain frequency and then talk away. Makes getting lost just that bit harder.
regards radish
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 7/10/2005 Posts: 116 Location: australia
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The front mud guards are also there to deflect the typical "ball bearing" type gravel which most of the cross country roads are covered in, the front tyres can pick up this gravel and bounce it on to the road just in front of the tyre and generally it deflects straight into the windscreen of oncoming cars like myself!!!
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 5/19/2006 Posts: 167 Location: N-E Victoria, Australia
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Well heres the third and final insatllment of my pics....sorry theres no more, just a couple of different views plus the new KW K108: Another view of the Greenfreight logger, note the auto-tensioners on the load binders on the trailers And the Membreys K108 from front on...the number plate says it all Cheers Stripeyjack
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 2/28/2008 Posts: 141 Location: Brisbane, QLD
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mattH wrote:The front mud guards are also there to deflect the typical "ball bearing" type gravel which most of the cross country roads are covered in, the front tyres can pick up this gravel and bounce it on to the road just in front of the tyre and generally it deflects straight into the windscreen of oncoming cars like myself!!! He, he, he, it aint them little pebbles that get the windscreen of any oncoming cars, it's them bigger ones that the duals chuck up, that breaks all the windows. Now if you do it just right, you can crack quite a few in a day, that's if your really trying to get 'em. The road rules have changed a bit lately, now duals need to have guards over them, back in the days when the duals were open, all the rocks just got chucked up nicely to get most windscreens. The sound of smashing glass was music to me ears, 'cause many an ignorant moron got his screen busted back in them days. Wonder what it costs for a new windscreen for that new KW K 108? It sure is a big one piece screen, a real good target for rocks, eh.
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 7/10/2005 Posts: 116 Location: australia
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radish, anythings possible with that stuff, have busted out the window in the tailgate of my car by flicking gravel from my own back tyres against the trailer I was towing and ricocheting it back through the window!
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 7/21/2007 Posts: 352 Location: Belgium
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Why did they show Daf trucks, nowbody will buy them if you can buy badass trucks like the rest.
We use the front mudflaps just for the bling
Big wheels keep on turnin' proud V8 keep on burnin' Passion for power => scania R730
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Member
Joined: 2/28/2008 Posts: 141 Location: Brisbane, QLD
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D.A.F. trucks are sold in Australia by most Kenworth dealers, so, when a customer is floored by the price of a brand new KW, he can then pick himself up, dust himself down, and then go buy one of them el-cheapo Disasters And Fu@&ups !
You would be surprised, at how many of these here thingy's, are actually being used as around town clowns. There getting like AR$#holes, everybody seems to have one.
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